PECKHAM

'Peckham' is an area of London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, located 3.5 miles (5.7 km) south-east of Charing Cross, about one mile (1.6 km) east of Camberwell and one mile (1.6 km) west of New Cross.
Peckham has never been an administrative district, or a single ecclesiastical parish in its own right, but it developed a strong sense of identity in the 19th century when Rye Lane was one of the most important shopping streets in south London.
The area known as Peckham covers a large geographic area of South London and takes in many diverse communities. A traditional London working class community now coexists with communities that have their origins in Bangladesh, the Caribbean, China, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkey and Vietnam. As well as these communities there has been a steady gentrification of some of the areas to the south of Peckham and this has meant an influx of cafés, wine bars, niche shops and artists' studios.
A few highly publicised crimes have tarnished the area's reputation. Cases such as the murder of Damilola Taylor in November 2000, the shooting of eight or nine (contemporary reports vary) people queuing outside ''Chicago's'' nightclub in the summer of 2000 and three murders in February 2007 (one of 15 year old Michael Dosunmu in his bedroom)^[1] have given the impression that Peckham is dangerous and lawless. However, incidents like this do not reflect the lives of a large majority of the people living in the area. ^{[2] [3]}

Contents

History

Regeneration

Jones & Higgins

''Only Fools and Horses''

Notable residents

Transport and locale

Nearest places

Nearest railway stations

External links

References and notes

History

'Peckham' is a Saxon place name meaning the village of the river Peck, a small stream that ran through the district until it was enclosed in 1823. Archaeological evidence indicates earlier Roman occupation in the area, although the name of this settlement is lost.
Peckham appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Pecheham''. It was held by the Bishop of Lisieux from the Bishop of Bayeux. Its domesday assets were: 2 hides. It had land for 1 plough, 2 acres of meadow. It rendered £1 10s 0d.^[4]
The manor was owned by King Henry I who gave it to his son Robert, Earl of Gloucester. When Robert married the heiress to Camberwell the two manors were united under royal ownership. John of England probably hunted at Peckham and local anecdotes suggest that the right to an annual fair was granted to celebrate a particularly good day's sport. The fair grew to be a rowdy major event lasting three weeks until its abolition in 1827.
Peckham became popular as a wealthy residential area by the sixteenth century and there are several claims that Christopher Wren had local links. By the eighteenth century the area was a more commercial centre with extensive market gardens and orchards growing produce for the nearby markets of London. Local produce included melons, figs and grapes. The formal gardens of the Peckham Manor House, rebuilt in 1672 by Sir Thomas Bond were particularly noticeable and can be seen on the Rocque map of 1746. The Manor House was sacked in 1688, as its then owner Sir Henry Bond was a Roman Catholic and staunch supporter of James VII and II. The house was finally demolished in 1797 for the formation of Peckham Hill Street, as the Shard family developed the area. Today Shard's Terrace, the block that contains Manze's Pie and Mash shop, and the western side of Peckham Hill Street represent this Georgian planned expansion.
The village was the last stopping point for many cattle drovers taking their livestock for sale in London. The drovers stayed in the local inns (such as ''The Red Cow'') while the cattle were safely secured overnight in holding pens. Most of the villagers were agricultural or horticultural workers but with the early growth of the suburbs an increasing number worked in the brick industry that exploited the local London Clay.
In 1767 William Blake visited Peckham Rye and had a vision of an angel in a tree. In 1993, at the request of the Dulwich Festival, artist Stan Peskett painted a mural of Blake's vision next to the Goose Green playground in East Dulwich.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century Peckham was a "small, quiet, retired village surrounded by fields". Since 1744 stage coaches had travelled with an armed guard between Peckham and London to give protection from highwaymen. The rough roads constrained traffic so a branch of the Grand Surrey Canal was proposed as a route from the Thames to Portsmouth. The canal was built from Surrey Commercial Docks to Peckham before the builders ran out of funds in 1826. The abbreviated canal was used to ship soft wood for construction and even though the canal was drained and backfilled in 1970 Whitten's timber merchants still stands on the site of the canal head.
In 1851 Thomas Tilling started an innovative omnibus service from Peckham to London. Tilling's buses were the first to use pre-arranged bus stops, which helped them to run to a reliable timetable. His services expanded to cover much of London until his horses were requisitioned for the army in World War I.
Before Peckham Rye station was opened in 1865 the area had developed around two centres: north and south. In the north, housing spread out to the south of the Old Kent Road including Peckham New Town built on land owned by the Hill family (from whom the name Peckham Hill Street derives). In the south, large houses were built to the west of the common land called Peckham Rye and the lane that led to it.

With the arrival of the railway and the introduction of horse-drawn trams about ten years later, Peckham became accessible to artisans and clerical staff working in the City and the Docks. Housing for this socio-economic group filled almost all the remaining fields except the Rye. In 1868 the Vestry of Camberwell St Giles bought the Rye to keep it as common land. Responding to concerns about the dangerous overcrowding of the common on holidays the Vestry bought the adjacent Homestall Farm (the last farm in the area) in 1894 and opened this as Peckham Rye Park.
With the influx of younger residents with money to spend Rye Lane became a major shopping street. Jones & Higgins opened a small shop in 1867 (on the corner of Rye Lane and Peckham High Street) that would become the best known department store in south London for many years. It closed in the 1980s.
The late nineteenth century also saw the arrival of George Batty, a manufacturer of condiments, whose main business stood at Finsbury Pavement. The company's Peckham premises occupied 19 railway arches. It was acquired by H. J. Heinz Company in 1905 as their first UK manufacturing base.
The southern end of Peckham was the location for the railway line that once served The Crystal Palace in Sydenham. Though the line was eventually dismantled due to the collapse of the embankment into the gardens of Marmora Road it is still possible to see large sections of it. The flats on Wood Vale and the full length of Brenchley Gardens trace its route.
Marmora, Therapia, Mundania and Scutari Roads all derive their curious names from locations during the Crimean war. Close by to them is the Aquarius Golf Course which is located over an underground reservoir. When the reservoir was built it was the largest covered reservoir in the world.
Camberwell Old Cemetery, on Forest Hill Road, is a later example of the ring of Victorian Cemeteries that were built to alleviate the overcrowding of church yards that was experienced with the rapid expansion of London in the 19th Century. The Stone House at its main entrance was used in the filming of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr. Sloane (released 1970). It was gutted by fire in the mid 1970’s and rebuilt some years later. Camberwell Old Cemetery did not have the grandeur of nearby Nunhead Cemetery, which was one of the original London necropoles, and once full it was replaced by Camberwell New Cemetery on Brenchley Gardens.
Brenchley Gardens park follows the route of the old line to The Crystal Palace culminating at the the High Level station. The park runs behind Marmora road and the remains of the embankment then continues along Wood Vale where flats were built on it. The line was closed in 1954 following a decline in its use after the destruction of the Crystal Palace in 1936 and due to slippage in the structure of the embankment. ^[5]
In the 1930s George Scott Williamson and Innes Pearse opened the Pioneer Health Centre in Queens Road. They planned to conduct a large experiment into the effect of environment on health.
'The Peckham Experiment' recruited 950 families at one shilling a week. The members joined something like a modern sports club with facilities for physical exercise, games, workshops and socialising with no mandatory programme. The centre moved into a purpose built modernist building by the architect Sir Owen Williams in 1935.
North Peckham was heavily redeveloped in the 1960s with concrete housing characterised by high walkways. This became a sink estate by the 1980s with a marked rise in gun crime and illegal drug dealing. At the end of the 1990s a drastic plan was enacted to demolish the entire estate and replace it with low-rise dwellings and eliminate the no-go area that had become such a high-profile embarrassment. Less dramatic changes have also flowed from extensive investment in the housing and streets throughout Peckham.
In the early 1990s Peckham was a nexus of the underground music culture because of a large squat in the disused DHSS building near Peckham High Street. The squatters adopted the name ''Dole House Crew'' and held impromptu parties on the ground floor of the building whilst living on the upper floor.

Regeneration

The European Union has invested heavily in the regeneration of the area; partly funding the futuristic, award-winning Peckham Library, a new town square and swathes of new housing to replace the North Peckham Estate. Throughout the area state funding is being provided to improve the housing stock and renovate the streets. This includes funding for public arts projects like the Tom Phillips mosaics on the wall of the Peckham Experiment restaurant and the South London Gallery.
The main shopping street is Rye Lane, and the large Peckham Rye Park is nearby.
The oldest surviving building in Peckham is 2 Wood's Road, built in 1690.

Jones & Higgins

With the opening of a small shop in 1867 along what was then known as South Street (Rye Lane), this locally iconic department store grew into a popular and fashionable place to shop up until its eventual close in 1981. Jones & Higgins buildings covered one side of the street at the bottom end of Rye Lane and often attracted many famous faces (notably Diana Dors) to open up sales events and turn on christmas lights. The stores survived the Blitz but sadly not the change in shopping habits. After being taken over by John Lewis in the mid-1970's and having it's name change to the Houndsditch store it closed down and the site was cleared to make way for the Aylesham Shopping Centre.

''Only Fools and Horses''

Peckham was the setting for the popular sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'' between 1981 and 2003, and has not yet shaken off its reputation as the run-down, dangerous area that was depicted in the TV series. The series was never filmed in Peckham, but rather in various locations including Acton, Brighton, Salisbury, Ipswich, Hull and Bristol.

Notable residents

★ Janith Aranze Bollywood actor

★ Stephen Bourne attended Oliver Goldsmith School

★ Robert Browning attended Reverend Thomas Ready’s School

★ Michael Caine attended Wilson's Grammar School

★ Simon Callow, Actor

★ Oswald Chambers Church minister and author (lived near Rye Lane 1889-1895)

★ Lorraine Chase was discovered in a café by Peckham Rye station

★ Peter Collinson FRS, Scientist

★ Tony Curran, Actor

★ Chris Eubank, Boxer

★ Rio and Anton Ferdinand, footballers.

★ Julius Francis, Boxer

★ Oliver Goldsmith was a teacher at Dr Milner's Academy

★ Antony Gormley, Artist

★ Matt and Luke Goss of Bros

★ Alfred Hugh Harman founded his business in Peckham before moving to Ilford

★ Anish Kapoor, Artist

★ Vernon Kay, TV Presenter

★ Marlon King, Footballer

★ Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary

★ Norma Major was educated at Peckham School for Girls where she was Head Girl.

★ Peter Mansfield attended Peckham Central, then William Penn School, when it was in Choumert Road.

★ Andy McNab, Soldier and Writer

★ Parminder Nagra star of Bend It Like Beckham and ER

★ Tom Phillips, Artist

★ Zoë Pollock born in Peckham, known for the song "Sunshine On A Rainy Day"

★ Harold James Ruthven Murray was born near Peckham Rye

★ Steve Chandra Savale (also known as Chandrasonic) (guitarist and composer) Asian Dub Foundation

★ Edgar Wallace attended Reddin's Road School

★ Gillian Wearing Artist

Transport and locale

Nearest places

★ Bermondsey

★ Brockley

★ New Cross

★ Camberwell

★ Dulwich

★ East Dulwich

★ Newington

★ Nunhead

★ Walworth

Nearest railway stations

★ Peckham Rye railway station

★ Queens Road Peckham railway station

External links

★ The Peckham Society

★ Peckham Community Website

★ Peckham Vision - a local community group

★ Ideal Homes: Suburbia in Focus

★ Southwark Council Local History

★ Article about the Peckham Experiment = Pioneer Health Center

★ Cllr Fiona Colley, councillor for East Peckham & Nunhead

★ Cllr Mary Foulkes, councillor North East Peckham

★ Labour in Southwark

★ Pecknam.com - Blogging adventures around SE London

References and notes

1. Guns plague Peckham despite the investment
2. Metropolitan Police
3. Peckham: a suburb apart?
4. Surrey Domesday Book
5. Crystal Palace (High Level) - Nunhead


★ John D Beasley, ''The Story of Peckham'', (London: London Borough of Southwark, 1976)

★ John D Beasley, ''Who Was Who In Peckham'' (London: Chener Books, c1985)

★ H. J. Dyos, ''Victorian Suburb: A Study in the Growth of Camberwell'' (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1961)

★ Joseph Priestley, ''Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals, and Railways, of Great Britain'', (Wakefield: Richard Nichols, 1831)